By Don Rhodes II | Birmingham Times
On Tuesday, members of the Birmingham City Council’s Public Safety Committee joined Mayor Randall Woodfin for a proclamation in observance of Gun Violence Awareness Month and pointed out that homicides are down 46 percent in the first five months of 2025 after the city ended last year with a homicide total that broke a record set in 1933.
Councilor LaTonya Tate, chair of the Public Safety Committee, said the decrease can be attributed to the holistic approach that city officials have taken to reduce violent crime including hospital-based violence intervention programs, mentorships, community-facing organizations and investments in youth programming.
Tate also said a straightforward approach can also be credited. “Those closest to the problem are closest to the solution,” she told the Birmingham Times. “When I took on the role as Chair of Public Safety [in 2021] I felt it was my obligation to pursue strategies that actually work. That meant looking beyond Birmingham and studying proven models from cities like Newark and Baltimore.”
For example, she pointed to One Hood, an initiative that trains certified “violence interrupters” and “credible messengers” community members, often formerly justice-involved, who mediate conflict and offer alternatives to at-risk youth, a program she said came from Newark, New Jersey. With support from the Mayor and City Council, more than 30 Birmingham residents have completed the training, bringing their lived experience into roles that foster healing and change.
Another part of the program she said is Pull Up for Peace, a mobile outreach initiative that brings resources like GED assistance, job placement, and mental health services directly into high-risk neighborhoods. “We can’t just ask people to leave the streets,” she said. “We have to offer them something better.”
She added, “we’ve got to reach them young. That’s why programs like RESTORE program are critical; it’s intervention before incarceration,” said Tate.
The RESTORE juvenile re-entry program was formally launched in 2023 to provide comprehensive services and support for youth ages 16 to 19 who have been placed in state custody for a minimum of 30 days at a Department of Youth Services placement, the G. Ross Bell Detention Center or any Department of Youth Services diversion facility.
The program is designed to provide multiple services including comprehensive family intake and assessment; creation of a participant educational/career plan and work with families to ensure safe housing and stability.
Tate, who was first elected in 2021 to serve district 9 and is running for re-election in the August 26 city elections, said a critical component of her mission is youth empowerment, and projects like “205 in Park” modeled after BET’s 106 & Park, the live event features young people running the show — interviewing community leaders, artists, and each other on topics like mental health, gun violence, and restorative justice.
That popular BET program ran on cable television from Sept. 11,2000 to Dec. 19, 2014.
In her program, “205 in Park “They [four youth hosts] asked the questions. They chose the guests. They ran the stage,” Tate said. “It’s their future, and they deserve the mic.”
Birmingham Mayor Woodfin’s FY 2026 budget proposal supports many of these youth-centered efforts with funding toward juvenile justice alternatives like the Restore Program, operated in part at the Christian Center in Birmingham Al, offers both in- and out-of-facility interventions for young people at high risk of entering the justice system. Other key partners (of the RESTORE Program) include the Offender Alumni Association, Determined to Be, and local schools eager to bring restorative practices to students.
During Tuesday’s council meeting, Tate said, “I want to thank the Offender Alumni Association, One Hood., violence interrupters and all those who have helped us make a tremendous impact in the last year. We want to remember the survivors and help them with the resources they need so that we can end the cycle of violence in our communities. I want to thank the mayor for embracing this strategy to help reduce gun violence and for investing in proven, community-driven tactics to stop it before it occurs.”
